He has a dog
by dogbertcarroll
Summary: The Order of the Phoenix calls in outside help to deal with their little problem...
1. Chapter 1

**He has a dog**

**Disclaimer: I won no property claimed by Warner Brothers.  
**

**AN: Blame Rorschach's Blot, this is number ten on the list of things he wanted to see in a fic.**

"I... I may know someone who can help us," Bill said, nervously raking his thumb across the back of his left hand.

"Really?" Dumbledore asked, a bit surprised at seeing the normally fearless cursebreaker shudder.

"Son, are you OK?" Arthur asked as Fleur took Bill's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"I-I'm fine," Bill assured him. "You'll understand once I explain."

The members of The Order Of The Phoenix exchanged glances and murmured to each other for a moment before quieting down.

"As a curse breaker I get to see things that most of the world doesn't know about, but it's not just things that wizards made and warded. Sometimes we run across... places..." his voice trailed off and the room was silent for a moment. "There are places that are hidden for a reason and even the goblins won't touch them. Magic doesn't work right, the stars above them, they aren't the same ones which shine on us here, and..."

"Get to the point, Weasley!" Snape ordered impatiently, his voice cutting harshly through the tense atmosphere which had been building around Bill's tale and the current silence as Bill stood there staring at nothing.

Molly took a deep breath and opened her mouth to tear Snape a new one when Bill spoke again, "Thanks, I needed that. The dementors aren't a species. You see, there was a muggle camp for young girls to spend the summer at in... um, you don't really need to know where. The girls ranged between nine and thirteen and the camp was beside a small lake. The lake had a ... shrine? Church I suppose you could call it, at the deepest point. Best as anyone can figure, a couple of college students who were working at the camp decided to investigate it and one of them brushed the clapper in the bell tower and it rang once, muffled by the water. Something almost awoke...briefly and it changed them. Everyone past puberty died, insane and screaming, until their heart burst or they managed to rip it out of their chests themselves. They were the lucky ones."

"The dementors are..." Dumbledore couldn't bring himself to ask.

"The youngest," Bill said softly, not wanting to look anyone in the eye.

"And how does this help us?" Snape demanded, trying to distract himself from something even he found horrifying.

"That was just an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about and it is one you can verify," Bill explained. "Believe me when I say that was mild compared to some of the things that happen. Now, there is a man who regularly investigates those sites and returns alive and... well I can't call anyone who willingly enters those places sane, but he's more there than Moody."

The laughter of the group held an edge of hysteria but it helped drive away some of the fear that permeated the air, as Fawkes added his own harmonic chuckle.

"He could help us," Bill said gravely. "Voldemort would be no more than a minor problem to him."

"Then why haven't you asked him to help already?" Sirius asked warily.

"Because his price isn't galleons," Bill explained. "If I ask him here to solve our problem everyone has to agree to whatever his price is and you have to understand what he deals with to realize what you're promising."

"So, what? He'd ask for our souls?" Mundungus asked nervously.

"I doubt he has a use for them," Bill said honestly. "But, he once took a curse breaker with him to a site and the man returned without his shadow."

"Was he OK otherwise?" Dumbledore asked.

"He was fine, he couldn't be magically traced anymore, and had to see a mindhealer for a couple of months. Eventually the mindhealer decided obliviation was the best way to handle things and he's fine now."

The members of The Order Of The Phoenix discussed things among themselves while Dumbledore stroked his chin.

"You've never mentioned anything like this before," Molly told her son.

"This kind of knowledge shouldn't be casually shared," Bill said shaking his head. "Some things draw power from thoughts about them. In fact I'll be casting a charm that helps people ignore the memory when everything is done."

"Can he really take care of Voldemort?" Arthur asked his son.

"I wouldn't have suggested him if I didn't think he could do it."

"I vote in favor," Dumbledore announced. "I'll volunteer myself to pay whatever the price is."

"That'll be up to him," Bill said.

"I call for a vote," Dumbledore announced. "All in favor?"

"Aye!" chorused the group.

"The Ayes have it," Dumbledore said seeing that even those who normally abstained had voted aye.

Everyone craned to stare at the hall leading to the front door as three resounding knocks echoed down it.

Dumbledore drew his wand and cast a couple of spells. "The fidelius is still up."

Bill got up. "That's probably him now. He has a way of just turning up."

"Inside a fidelius?!" Moody demanded gruffly.

"Yeah," Bill agreed. "I haven't seen a ward yet that he didn't just ignore."

"He must be one hell of a wizard," Sirius said.

"He's not a wizard, he's a muggle," Bill said as he went to answer the door. Ignoring the questions behind him he opened the front door.

"Bill! Is that you? Hey man, good to see you," the lanky dark haired man at the door said clasping forearms with him.

"It's me, Shag-" Bill began only to be interrupted.

"Call me Norville, my nickname just doesn't sound right around here, even if this is where I got it from."

Bill laughed and waved him inside moving back a little moving back a little to let the man's enormous dog in as well.

Dumbledore examined the man intently.

Norville was a couple of inches above six feet tall, though it would be hard to notice with the way he slouched. Faded blue Levis and an olive green T-shirt with an army jacket definitely marked him as a muggle, though looking into his dark brown eye, the left being covered by an eye patch, you could almost feel the weight of the secrets it held. A silver coin danced over the knuckles of his left hand as he studied the group and vice versa. "This is one creepy looking clubhouse, man."

"We're to trust a muggle to take out the dark lord?" Snape snorted and drew his wand. "A single stunner could take him out! _**Stupify**_!"

Norville lazily raised his left hand holding the silver coin between his thumb and forefinger and deflected the curse right back even brighter than it had been. Snape hit the wall hard enough to dent the plaster before falling limply to the floor, his wand rolling away. "Hey, Bill, introduce me to the hot chick," he said in the sudden silence.

Fleur and Tonks' eyes narrowed when Bill replied, "Sure."

Holding up an arm for Fawkes, who flew over obviously curious, he said, "Norville, Fawkes. Fawkes, Norville."

Fawkes trilled a series of notes but the usual feeling of peace and contentment was washed away when Norville whistled something in return that sent a wave of cold through the listener. Not an altogether unpleasant sensation, but one that left you feeling more aware than you'd ever been in your life.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"What do you think?" Harry asked Hermione as they watched the meeting on a mirror in the library.

"I think I'm glad Gabrielle doesn't speak English and I almost wish I didn't," Hermione said nodding to the little French girl who was sitting in Harry's lap.

Ron chuckled. Somehow Gabrielle had gotten the idea that since fiery birds like the phoenix could cheer people up then she should be able to too and had immediately appropriated Harry's lap on her arrival.

As far as Ron could tell she was right. Since she'd arrived Harry had relaxed a little and smiled more frequently. Gabrielle spoke not a word of English, nor Harry French, but that seemed not to bug either one in the least.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"...and that's the situation," Bill finished.

"Zoinks," Norville said shaking his head. "Heavy stuff, man. Well lets take care of Snape first."

Snape had finally come around after several attempts by Dumbledore, but was still groggy. "Huh?"

"Let me see your arm," Norville said as he pulled a small vial of clear liquid and a dirty handkerchief from his pocket.

Bill bared Snape's arm showing the dark mark. Wetting the rag with a tiny amount of liquid, Norville scrubbed at the dark mark, which ran and smeared like it was painted on. Wetting the handkerchief one more time he carefully cleaned the arm of all traces of the mark. Snape fell over and began to snore.

"How?" Dumbledore asked, clearly shocked. "That wasn't just a stain on his arm, it was a stain on his soul!"

Norville shrugged. "It all depends on how you look at it. Anything can be cleaned with the right soap and a little elbow grease," Norville said, grinning before he sighed and sorrow filled his eye. "Fred used to say that," he finished sadly.

"Thank you," Dumbledore finally said, unable to think of any other response.

"It's no problem, man," Norville replied. "Anyone else around here connected to the evil dude?"

"No, that should be all," Dumbledore said.

The door to the kitchen opened and Harry stepped in carrying Gabrielle who was not about to be removed. "That's not quite true."

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**


	2. Chapter 2

**He has a dog 2**

"Harry?" Sirius asked.

"My scar," he reminded them.

"Like, have a seat, man," Norville said waving to a chair, and ignoring the arguing from Sirius and Molly. Harry sat down and Norville looked closely at his scar, gently running his thumb along it at one point. "I gotta use the rest of my water for this," he muttered. "Guess I'll be heading back home once I'm done here."

Harry shifted nervously and Gabrielle gave him a squeeze and sang something in French... badly.

Norville flinched at the off-key singing, but it made Harry smile, because he could tell she was doing her best to cheer him up.

"Feather?" Norville asked, and to Dumbledore's surprise Fawkes plucked one of his own tail feathers and held it out for him.

"Thanks, man," Norville said absently before gently scratching at the scar with it. The scar immediately turned red and Harry hissed but held still as Norville brought out a small vial of water and pulled out the cork.

"Brace yourself," Norville warned him and Harry concentrated on Gabrielle's singing.

Norville stabbed the center of the scar with the feather and the stench of rot and decay released made several people retch. A thick black liquid began seeping from the scar, drawn to the vial of water like iron filings to a magnet. Harry felt his eyes water and Gabrielle began singing louder to help distract him.

The seconds seemed to stretch on and Sirius finally drew his wand to put Harry to sleep, but a deep growl behind him made him freeze. Slowly turning his head he found himself eye to eye with a massive brown and black Great Dane. The dog had to outweigh him by a good twenty pounds and he couldn't believe he'd forgotten it was there!

He remembered the shock he felt as he'd first spotted it, but it just seemed to fade from his thoughts a second later, like it wasn't important... Sirius slowly holstered his wand, careful not to make any sudden moves that could be misinterpreted and then wondered why he'd done that.

"Uness ey ot uns un!" Gabrielle sang loudly eyes locked with Harry's, willing him to feel better.

"Done!" Norville announced as Harry slumped and he corked the vial once more the fluid in it now a dark black.

"Harry, are you OK?" Sirius asked anxiously.

Norville tucked the blood tipped phoenix feather behind Gabrielle's ear. "Great job, little lady."

Gabrielle answered something in French that made Fleur wince.

"I'm not saying that!" Fleur exclaimed.

"Why not?" Bill asked.

"It's rude and threatening," she explained.

Norville shrugged. "As long as it's appropriate I don't mind.

Fleur sighed. "She said, thank you for helping him, but if this turns out to be a trick I'm going to rip off your sack and force feed you your testicles."

Norville beamed, waving off Dumbledore's attempts to apologize. "Now that is a young lady with her priorities in order."

Harry smiled. "I feel... Like a nap."

"Let him sleep," Norville said as Harry yawned and left carrying Gabrielle like a child with his favorite stuffed animal.

"What did you do to him?" Dumbledore asked.

Norville held up the vial. "It was a soul fragment. Fortunately it was an evil one, because removing good ones are a real pain, man. Thankfully, they are always either really good or really evil, cause I have no idea how to remove one that isn't polarized like that."

Dumbledore nodded like Norville was just confirming what he already knew while the rest of the order stared at it in horror.

Norville shook the vial and it began to glow. "There's another fragment in the house," he said with a frown.

"Ginny!" Molly exclaimed nervously.

The fact that Ginny entered the room a few seconds later, before anyone could call her, was dismissed by the order members as Kreature doing his job and anticipating his master's requests, rather than the 'Children' spying on them.

Norville held out the vial. "Blow on this."

Ginny blew on the vial and a wisp of green smoke came out of her mouth causing the vial to glow almost imperceptibly brighter.

"Nah, you had barely anything, the fragment I feel is a lot bigger."

"I - I don't have any of him in me anymore?" Ginny asked anxiously.

"All you have is memories and fears," he explained. "All you had left of him was a sliver of a reflection and it's gone now."

"No more nightmares or understanding snakes?" she asked hopefully.

"Any nightmares will be honest ones, but you'll probably still understand snakes," he replied. "I haven't studied a lot about language based talents, but once they awaken for whatever reason they usually run in the family line."

"But parseltongue is a dark talent!" Molly exclaimed.

"No, being able to release the id of anyone you touch, is a dark talent, talking to snakes is just dull."

Ginny looked at her mother worriedly but Molly didn't hesitate to smother her in a hug.

"I'll ask Kreature if he knows where it is," Sirius offered, distracting everyone from staring at Molly comforting her daughter. "Kreature!"

The decrepit old elf appeared with a loud pop. "What does Bad Master want?" Kreature groused unhappily, his stained and dirty pillow case threadbare from his years of service.

"He's got it," Norville announced.

"Muggle!" Kreature hissed and raised his hand.

***crunch***

The Order starred as Kreature's headless body crumpled to the ground, a massive Great Dane standing behind him chewing.

"Spit it out, Scoob, you don't know where it's been."

The dog spit out a wad of half chewed house elf and several order members fingered their wands nervously not daring to draw them for fear of what the dog would do and wondering how they'd failed to notice he was in the room.

"How does he do that?" Dumbledore asked.

"Scoob's good at blending in," he replied. "And he's probably getting as hungry as I am, so let's take care of the next piece and break for lunch."

"If I call for a house elf, is he going to eat him?" Dumbledore asked cautiously.

"Not unless they try to attack," Norville assured him as he examined Kreature's body and pulled a familiar looking necklace off it.

"Slytherin's necklace," Dumbledore said.

"You mean it really did belong to that bastard?" Sirius asked.

"A priceless piece of history reduced to no more than a footnote in the career of a madman," Dumbledore said sadly.

Norville shook the vial until it gave off an angry green light and greenish vapor started to rise from the locket and get drawn into the vial. "You can have it back in a minute."

The vial glowed a brighter sullen green when he was done. "There's more out there we have to find."

"Depending on your ability to sense them I know of several possible places where they could be," Dumbledore offered.

"The more pieces I collect the better the range," Norville said reaching over and scratching his dog behind the ear.

Everyone froze for a moment as they realized the massive dog was still there and they'd all completely forgotten about him... again!

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**


	3. Chapter 3

**He Has A Dog 3**

"Are you OK?" Hermione asked Harry anxiously, looking at his scar and the small amount of dried blood that covered it.

"I'm fine," Harry replied with a smile and a yawn. "I just need a nap. Wake me if anything important happens."

The two watched Harry leave before turning back to the mirror and seeing the meeting breakup a few minutes later.

"I'm more than a little freaked out by this," Hermione admitted.

"I'm more than a little freaked out than you are," Ron said. "But mostly by the fact that it looks like the adults are actually going to be fixing things this time."

Sirius entered the library ahead of Fleur and Bill, muttering a quick spell to turn off the mirror's monitoring charms. "Yeah, that is kinda outside your experience," he said.

"Remind me to use the memory dampening spell on you too," Bill said.

"Where is Gabrielle?" Fleur asked.

"Harry went to take a nap," Hermione said.

"And Gabby went with him," Fleur said with a chuckle. "And here I thought I wouldn't have to worry about her sleeping with boys until she was much, much older."

"It's not like that, he just needed a nap," Hermione sprung to Harry's defense.

Fleur laughed again. "I was only teasing, I know Harry is a gentleman. Bill, would you mind getting Gabrielle?"

"Sure, be right back," he replied.

"Good luck," Ron said, as his older brother left. "She's decided to nest in his lap and won't be moved."

"Her singing is worse than Ron's, but she's done wonder's cheering him up," Hermione offered.

"Hey!" Ron complained.

"We aren't exactly songbirds," Fleur chuckled, "And her singing will improve when she gets older and gets over her fascination with American rap songs."

Bill came in while they were laughing more than a bit banged up and covered in bits of plaster.

"Are you alright?" Fleur asked, quickly fussing over him.

"I just got my ass handed to me by a girl that's barely reached double digits," he replied in shock, "I don't think alright covers it."

"What?!" came the chorus.

"Gabrielle objected to being removed from Harry's bed by picking me up and flinging me out of the room like she was Hagrid," he explained.

"That's impossible!" Fleur protested.

"I don't suppose vela go through some adaptation cycle or something secret do they?" Bill asked. "Because her hair has quite a bit of red in it now and she's actually singing on key."

"Non, at most during our first menstruation we may transform into our avian forms for the first time, but nothing like you describe," she replied confused.

Bill rolled up a sleeve showing a burn in the shape of a small handprint. "How about skin so hot it burns?"

"Not unless there is a fireball in it," Fleur said concerned. "I better check on her."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"What will you do once you have the whole soul?" Dumbledore asked as he and Norville walked through the school.

"There are some places I haven't poked around in because it's always night there, and lights don't work, muggle or magical. I figure this dark dude's soul should make a decent flashlight for those."

"Are you sure he won't be able to get loose?"

"The water... ensures things. See it's kinda like liquid karma, the guy with the stain had to honestly want it gone and have enough good karma to make up for the bad deeds it represented."

"Really?" Dumbledore asked hopefully, having had faith in Snape and happy to see it rewarded.

"Really," Norville confirmed. "The moldy soul we're collecting will stay in the vial until it's poured out and the water evaporates, sending it on. No one the water touches can be trapped down here, willing or not."

"That makes me feel a lot better," Dumbledore said. "I knew of several likely places to find the rest or at least the majority of it not with voldemort himself."

**Outside Harry's room**

Sirius and Bill cast cooling and anti-flame charms as fast as they could, but the flames seemed to mock them as the bed burned to ash despite their best efforts.

"Harry!" Sirius cried in horror.

"What the hell just happened?!" Moody demanded.

Fleur turned to him, but before she could say anything laughter could be heard from the white hot heart of the flames drawing everyone attention. Snape, still looking out of it, stepped into the small bedroom and stuck a marshmallow on the end of his wand before holding it over the fire. As Snape began to pull his wand back a small hand darted out and stole his marshmallow. Undeterred he stuck another one on his wand and held it over the flames.

"What is happening?!" Fleur demanded anxiously, trying to see into the heart of the inferno.

"I came up to help but the bed caught fire and we couldn't get the children off it," Bill explained. He squinted into the small inferno and saw two figures moving around and giggling. "I have no idea what this means," he said.

"Potter looks smaller," Mad-eye said as a hand darted out and stole another marshmallow before Snape could eat it, followed by a lot of giggling from the flames.

Snape attempted to roast two marshmallows at once, but that only resulted in two marshmallows being stolen.

"Aqua-" Sirius began only for Snape to interrupt.

"Don't do that," Snape ordered, before returning to trying to roast marshmallows.

"Do you know what's going on?" Fleur asked Snape.

"No, what?" he asked curiously trying and failing to get a marshmallow.

"Then why did you stop Mr. Black from trying to help put them out?" she asked confused.

"Seemed like the thing to do," Snape said with a shrug, still not looking all there. "Fire's not hurting them, but water might."

"You're sure they're OK?" Fleur asked.

Snape put his wand away and threw a marshmallow into the flames hitting one of the figures and earning a squeak from one of the kids followed by laughter.

"They do sound OK," Fleur admitted.

"The flames will die down eventually," Snape offered holding the bag of marshmallows out to her.

Fleur took a marshmallow and pegged one of the silhouettes in the flame with it causing it to yelp and then giggle as the other one ate the marshmallow stuck to it.

"I don't understand what's going on," Sirius admitted.

"The children seem OK, we just have to wait for the fire to die down to find out what happened," Fleur said.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"This way, man," Norville said as he moved the vial of glowing green fluid back and forth comparing how bright it was at different points in the Room of Requirements.

"What are you going to ask for payment?" Dumbledore asked as he banished junk out of the way so they could walk.

"I don't know, man," Norville said. "A lot of the time I don't know what I'm going to do until I do it, like everything becomes clear and I know what to do."

"I know how that is," Dumbledore agreed. "But I usually have at least a vague idea beforehand, though it may be wrong."

Norville nodded and a black smokey shape lept out of a cabinet they were passing only to freeze when facing shaggy turning into a dark skinned house elf that was a deep purple. Before Scooby could bite off its head it retreated back to the cabinet in fear, closing and locking the door behind itself.

"I'm guessing someone will be coming with me," Norville said thoughtfully.

"Someone who's finished their business in the magic world?" Dumbledore asked, deciding to ignore the boggart's reaction to Norville.

Norville slowly nodded. "Yeah, they've balanced their Karma here, finishing their last great task."

Dumbledore waved his wand clearing another path, but Norville swerved to the side and pointed at an old school trunk.

"It's in there," Norville said.

Dumbledore cast a variety of spells, including one that caused part of the trunk to turn transparent, to disarm the defenses Voldemort had left behind. "Open."

The trunk opened revealing Ravenclaw's fabled tiara, an artifact that worked like a permanent wit sharpening potion on the wearer, according to legend.

Norville didn't even need to shake the vial this time as the green vapors bubbled off the tiara and were drawn to it. It took about half a minute to remove Voldemort's tainted soul from the object. "You can have the tiara, its like, not my style, man," Norville said and his laughter was echoed by the Great Dane he had with him.

Dumbledore blinked and shook his head, realizing he'd forgotten about the dog, again! He put the tiara in his pocket. "I have three more places where I expect pieces to be, though the one in the Black house was a surprise and probably means one of the spots is empty."

"Or he made more," Norville said. "Doesn't matter; if we can find enough pieces we can pull the rest of it to us, rather than hunting down the remaining bits."

"That's good to hear," Dumbledore said relieved. "Now, I believe I promised you lunch."

The two arrived to a veritable feast in the great hall. The house elves had went all out making a lunch that rivaled a Weasley family reunion dinner. Dumbledore watched in amazement as Norville made and ate several sandwiches that could easily choke a centaur. He even made and fed several to... his dog! Dumbledore's shock at forgetting about the Great Dane yet again, faded as he forgot about the Great Dane, yet again.

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**


	4. Chapter 4

**He Has A Dog 4**

"No water," Fleur ordered quietly pouring a bucket of sand on the embers surrounding the sleeping children and children they both were, for Harry, though he looked much healthier, was a red haired boy Gabrielle's age now. Following Fleur's directions, Bill and Sirius had smothered the remains of the fire using buckets of sand, revealing the two sleeping forms.

"The fire burned all the evil out of them," Snape said as he watched the three pour sand everywhere while he ate lunch.

"How do you figure?" Sirius asked.

"Harry looks a lot more like his mum," Snape replied.

"James was not evil!" Sirius snapped only to be shushed by Fleur.

"He was more evil than Lily," Snape said, "That's why Harry's a redhead now."

"I really have no response to that," Sirius said. "I can still see some of James in him."

"The non-evil bits," Snape agreed.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"I'm not sure if I'm ready for this," Minerva said.

"It's long past time Hogwarts had a new headmistress, you'll do fine," Dumbledore said before turning to Norville. "Would you prefer to check out an old creepy shack or a closed down orphanage?"

"Orphanage," Norville said, "I've seen creepy old everythings, but orphanages generally are the worst. Best to handle them first."

Dumbledore held out an arm to apparate them both and blinked in shock as a large brown and black Great Dane wrapped his mouth around his wrist just before they vanished. Dumbledore rubbed his temples and wondered how he was going to keep from going nuts when he got an idea, and promptly forgot about it and the dog again.

"Not a spec of soul within miles," Norville said holding the vial to his ear.

"On to the next spot then."

Once again the dog's presence came as a surprise, but then he remembered his idea and quickly tattooed four words on the back of his left hand with a spell, before apparating them to their next stop.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"They need a bath," Sirius said.

"And some clothing," Fleur agreed as she looked at the ash covered children.

"Do we wake them up or let them sleep for now?" Bill asked.

"Can we see Harry yet?" Hermione asked impatiently, from outside the room.

"Not until we get some pants on him," Fleur told her. "All their clothes burned up."

"Ok, let me know when they're ready," Hermione said with a sigh.

"We'll let them sleep it off," Fleur decided.

Snape pulled out another marshmallow and enlarged it to the size of a couch cushion before holding it over the sleeping children with a smirk on his face.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"I say we set it on fire and let the flames burn off the evil," Norville said as the two looked at the shed with the dead snake nailed to the door.

"Can we do that?" Dumbledore asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not," he replied. "Cursed items can't always be destroyed that way, but their protections usually can."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said throwing half a dozen fire spells at the place, overwhelming the decayed fire protection charms. The place burned quickly and Dumbledore was forced to cast notice-me-not and muggle repelling wards to keep from drawing attention. "What should we do while we wait?" Dumbledore asked as he watched the fire cheerfully burn away the gloom and doom that normally coated the area.

"Ever make smores?"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Now they really need a bath," Fleur said as the two children ate handfuls of the melted marshmallow coating them.

"This is good," Harry said, surprising everyone.

"You can talk?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Uh huh," Harry agreed before pretending to bite Gabrielle's neck as he sucked melted marshmallow of it making her giggle and say something in French that cause Fleur to turn bright red.

"Bath time," Fleur decided as Gabrielle hugged Harry gluing them both together. "Non," she told Gabrielle as she pried the two apart, and drug her off to wash.

"What happened?" Sirius asked Harry.

"Me and Gabby burned off stuff we didn't like or need," Harry said cheerfully.

"How?" Bill asked.

"Dunno," Harry replied with a shrug. "Think they're in the bath yet?"

"Probably," Sirius said.

Harry snapped his fingers and vanished in a burst of flame.

Sirius panicked for a second before he heard a loud splash and Fleur cursing in French. "Burned off all the evil, eh?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just his evil, not his sense of humor," Snape replied.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Norville pried the stone loose from the ring and handed it to Dumbledore who stared at it in wonder. "Hold this."

Before Dumbledore could turn it over a large dog's mouth clamped lightly over his wrist.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Norville asked.

"I-I want to know if what happened to my sister was my fault and beg her forgiveness," Dumbledore falteringly said.

"Isn't calling up her shade worse than killing her?" Norville replied. "Besides I doubt you'll have that long to wait before you can ask her yourself, but really all you have to do is ask yourself, 'was she the mean spirited unforgiving sort, who would hold your childhood stupidity against you?"

"No, I don't believe she was," Dumbledore said with a slowly growing smile.

"Then you already have your answer."

"Indeed I do," Dumbledore said as Scooby released his wrist and he pocketed the stone.

"Three left," Norville announced. "Two are... like the scar was, and one is like the ring."

"It's probably Helga's cup," Dumbledore guessed; as that was the last founder's item he had evidence of Voldemort possessing.

"Let's get the cup out of the way before we do the whole unmasking scene," Norville suggested.

"Unmasking scene?" Dumbledore asked.

"Final wrap up where all the secrets are revealed and the bad guys taken down," he replied wistfully. "I do a decent job, but Fred had a flair for it and Velma... I loved hearing her do it." He pushed the memories aside and stood up. "The cup is a long ways.. that a way," Norville said pointing towards Diagon Alley.

"Portus," Dumbledore said, tapping his robe with his wand. "Whenever you're ready," he said kindly.

Norville sighed and nodded. "I'm good, just missing my friends is all."

"I understand," Dumbledore said. "You should visit them after this."

"Would that I could," the lanky man said with a sigh, Scooby sensed his sadness and licked his face.

Dumbledore blinked and rubbed his temples. He was a master occlumens, but whatever charm the dog carried was powerful enough to ignore his shields. It was quite frustrating. Dumbledore noticed a tattoo on the back of his hand and wondered why he'd written it.

"Ready?" Norville asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed, dispelling the tattoo.

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**


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